Eighty percent of people with diabetes live in low and middle-income countries, where health systems are not equipped to respond to this growing epidemic and few people can access the care they need.
Visual loss (low vision or blindness) commonly co-occurs with diabetes. Diabetes is well-known as a cause of visual loss from diabetic retinopathy. Increasing age is a risk factor for both diabetes and common causes of visual loss, e.g. macular degeneration.
Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of preventable blindness in the working age population, and is a feared complication of many people with diabetes. There are over 90 million people who currently have diabetic retinopathy.